The present invention relates to table games, such as pocket billiards, traditional billiards and snooker. More specifically, the present invention relates to training balls and a method of using them for the purposes of improving a player's aim in these table games to cause an object ball to roll in the desired direction after being struck by a cue ball.
Various well known table games exist where a cue stick is used to strike a cue ball to make it impact into an object bail to make that object ball travel in a desired direction. For example, in the game of pocket billiards, a cue ball is commonly struck into an object ball to sink it into a desired corner or side pocket. In billiards, an impact ball is struck into an object ball for the purposes of contact other object balls and rails.
For ease of discussion herein, the game of pocket billiards will be addressed in detail. However, it should be understood that the present invention can be employed in any table game where one ball is struck by a cue stick into another ball for the purposes of directing that ball in a desired direction. Therefore, the other types of table games will not be discussed herein as they employ and take advantage of the device and method of the present invention in similar fashion as the game of billiards.
In pocket billiards, various games are played using a cue ball and a series of consecutively numbered object balls. To start a game, the object balls are arranged in a formation at one end of a pocket billiard table with rails and are struck by a cue ball from the opposing end of the table. Arrangement of the formation of the object balls is facilitated by a rack. In a pocket billiard game of “Hi-Lo” or “straight pool”, fifteen object balls are racked into a triangular-shaped formation. In the game of “nine ball”, nine object balls are racked into a diamond-shaped formation. In these games, the cue ball is struck into the racked formation of object balls with the purpose of sinking the object balls, in an order dictated by the game being played, into the pockets.
During the game play of pocket billiards, the cue stick must first impact the cue ball before it hits an object ball. Thus, to sink an object ball into a pocket, it is possible that the cue ball may first be hit into a rail on the billiard table to then impact into an object ball to direct it into a pocket. However, the most common shot played on a pocket billiard table is where the cue ball is struck directly into an object ball for the purposes of directing that object in a desired direction. Frequently, that desired direction is directly into a pocket. That desired direction may also be into a rail or cushion for the purposes of making a bank shot. Moreover, the desired direction of the object ball may also be into another ball to make a combination shot.
In each of the foregoing shots where the cue ball impacts directly into an object ball, the cue ball must be carefully impacted into the object ball at the correct angle to ensure that the objected ball is propelled in the desired direction. For the purposes of this discussion, it is assumed that the speed of impact is sufficient to propel the object ball into the pocket. If the cue ball does not impact the object ball in the correct position, assuming the speed of impact is proper, the object ball will be off line and miss its target destination resulting in a missed shot.
Therefore, the game of pocket billiards continually requires that the player impact the object ball with the cue ball at the correct angle to avoid missed shots and improve the level of game play. To avoid misdirected object balls and misdirected shots, it is critical that two things occur. First, the player must determine what the correct angle of impact of the cue ball into the object is to make the desired shot. Then, the player must execute the shot by actually impacting the cue ball into the angle previously determined. If either one or both of these steps are carried out improperly, a missed shot will result.
More specifically, many amateur pocket billiard players misidentify the angle of impact the cue needs to make into the object ball. In other words, they perceive the angle of impact needed to direct the object ball in the desired direction as too great or too little. The selection of the correct impact angle is difficult for an amateur player to learn particularly because the cue ball and the object ball are both spherical in shape which makes it more difficult to read the angles needed to make a shot. Frequently, a player has determined the correct angle of impact to properly direct the object ball but they fail to execute the shot by impacting the cue ball properly into the object ball to cause it to be propelled in the correction direction.
The game of billiards focuses on the ability of the player to successfully determine the correct angle and then execute the shot. There have been many attempts in the prior art to improve a player's ability to carry out these steps. For example, there are prior billiard ball aiming systems where the outer surface of an object ball is covered with an array of colored dots where adjacent dots are of different colors from one another. In this system, the dots on the object ball are only used to assist the player in executing the shot, namely, hitting the selected portion of the object ball. These types of systems provide no assistance to the player in selecting and determining the correct aiming line and impact angle.
Also, various known aiming systems include the use of both a cue ball and an object ball. In these systems both the cue ball and the object ball have some type of indicia thereon. For example, known systems include a cue ball with a single band of material therearound and an object ball with two hemispheres of contrasting colors. The player manually determines the desired path of the object ball which is aligned with the meridian of the object ball being aligned with the desired path. The band of the cue ball is aligned with the path of the cue ball along the general direction of the object ball. The player hits the cue ball into the object ball at an angle that they have mentally determined and selected. The two-color hemispheres of the object visually assist the player to hit that angle that they have mentally selected. The indicia on the cue ball and the object ball assists the player to determining the rotation of the ball to see if the shot is not in the right direction and whether improper spin has been placed on either of the balls. However, these systems do not provide any guidance for the player to determine the proper angle of impact for an object ball.
Also, there have been prior art systems and methods that not only help determine the proper angle of impact of the cue ball into the object ball but also provide the proper contact points so the shot can be executed. For example, these known systems typically use intersecting bands of indicia on both the object ball and the cue all. The intersection of the vertical band and a horizontal band on the object ball determines the contact point of the object ball. The cue ball also has intersecting vertical and horizontal bands. The point of intersection determines the impact point of the cue ball into the object ball. The vertical band on the object ball is aligned with the desired path of the object ball, such as toward a pocket. The vertical band on the cue ball is aligned parallel to the direction of the vertical band of the object ball. Such aiming systems are difficult to successfully use because the player is required to align the vertical band of the cue ball parallel to an imaginary aiming line through the vertical band of the object ball. In accordance with this prior method and system, aligning the cue ball with its vertical band parallel to the aiming line through the vertical band of the object ball is very difficult to do for a player. This is exacerbated by the parallax effect, particularly when the balls are not close to one another on the table. This causes inaccurate alignment of the cue ball resulting in poor selection of the contact point on the cue ball.
In view of the foregoing, there is a demand for an aiming method and system that can selects the aiming line for the object ball as well as select the impact point on the cue ball. There is a demand for an aiming method and system that can more accurately and reliably select the aiming line and impact points than prior art methods and systems. There is a further demand for an aiming method and system that is easy to use. There is also a demand for an aiming method and system that greatly simplifies the number of shots that can be made on a billiard table. There is a demand for an aiming method and system that can be used with direct shots, bank shots and combination shots. There is a further need for an aiming method that can be used during actual game play even without the use of the physical training cue ball and object ball.